Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 28

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 32
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

"That sounds sad."

I looked up from my guitar and found Vinnie standing inside the house watching me as I sat on the deck. "Good morning," I said. "Did I wake you?"

"Nah, I was awake anyway."

"There's coffee in the kitchen."

He raised a mug to me. "Found it. Want some?"

I'd made it for him and Nick, not me. I wasn't the one who'd stayed up until three drinking beer and playing video games.

"I'm okay. Thanks. Coming out here or is the sun too much for you?"

"I can handle it," he said, but he found his ball cap before he joined me outside, and I saw him wince when he stepped into the light.

We just sat for a minute, and I strummed a few chords, trying to remember the song that I'd been struggling with. It didn't matter. I hadn't written anything decent in weeks. Months, maybe. "Nick awake?"

He'd been sound asleep when I slipped out of bed. I'd feigned sleep when he'd finally come to bed, not that he'd been sober enough to be of any use to me.

"I heard snoring when I walked past your room."

"Figures."

"Going to be able to live with that when you're settled down?"

I looked over at him. "What?"

"You've been together a year, right? And Nick's crazy about you. It only makes sense that a wedding can't be far off."

The last person in the world I wanted to be discussing my love life with was Vinnie. "He's only twenty-two. That's pretty young."

"Plenty of people get married when they're twenty-two. His mom was young when she had him, right?"

Yeah, and look where that got them. Nick had been avoiding his family lately. He didn't even talk about them. I knew something was up, but he wasn't talking to me about it.

I just continued looking at Vinnie, and he took a sip of his coffee. "And Nick's twenty-two, but you're not."

"Are you saying that I'm old?"

"No! Just… never mind. Just that it seems like you guys are going to be heading for the altar soon."

"Talk to Nick about that?" I asked him. "Because I don't think that's where his mind is lately."

Far from it. Hell, he couldn't even remember it was our anniversary. I'd had great plans for this weekend, and all of them were shot to hell as soon as I saw that he'd brought Vinnie.

"Guys don't talk about this stuff, Rachel."

I had to smile at that. "Point taken. Anyway. We're not there yet. Don't worry."

"I'm not worried. I think it would be nice. Nick needs a stable influence in his life."

Is that all I was? A stabilizing influence? No wonder he seemed to never want to spend any time alone with me. I was boring.

I could hear Rachel and Vinnie talking, and I found them out on the deck. It was too fucking bright out there. Vinnie had had as much as I did last night. How could he stand the sun?

"Hey," I said from the screen door, and they turned to look at me. "What are you talking about?"

"Marriage," Vinnie answered.

Marriage? What the fuck?

"How can you stand it out there, dude? Isn't your head pounding?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Come out, it's nice."

"No, I…"I looked at Rachel. "Can you come inside for a second, Rache? I need to talk to you."

She exchanged a glance with Vinnie and got up, bringing her guitar inside. "Morning," she said, walking by me to place her guitar in the case she'd left on the table. "There's coffee. Looks like you need it."

"I'm okay. Ken just called."

"Some tragedy with the album?"

"Yeah." I sighed. "They want another take on a couple of the tracks, because Jive doesn't like a single yet."

"You have got to be kidding me," she said, snapping her guitar case shut and turning around to look at me. "They haven't produced the hell out of anything to be single worthy yet?"

"Hey!" I said. My album was not overproduced. Much.

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean, Nick. Are they really saying that you need to re-record tracks?"

"I'd rather do that than fix it all in editing. That's not what…"

She held up a hand to stop me. "That's not what this album is all about. I know. So, you're telling me you have to go back to New York?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "I have a meeting tonight, and then studio time tomorrow."

She looked away from me, crossing her arms over her chest, and I moved closer to her. "But after my meeting tonight, I'm all yours. Promise."

"In New York. On a Friday. With Vinnie around. I doubt it."

I stepped away from her, surprised by how angry she sounded. "I'm sorry I brought Vinnie this weekend. I fucked up. I know that. But we'll have tonight in New York, I promise. I'll make reservations at some great place for dinner. Or we can just stay in the hotel room. Whatever you want."

"Know what, Nick? I want to stay here and work on my songs. You're not the only one working on an album."

"I know that." Did she have to be so mad at me when I had a hangover? How many times did I have to apologize? She'd said she was okay with Vinnie being here yesterday. What had he said to her?

"Why were you talking about marriage with Vinnie?"

"It was nothing. You guys take the Porsche back to the city, and I'll stay here and do my homework for when we're in the studio next week."

I pulled her into my arms, but she didn't respond. "Can't you bring your homework to New York? Have guitar, will travel?"

"I write better here at home. I don't want to go to New York, Nick. It's hot and sticky and crowded."

I kissed her neck, feeling her soften a bit in my arms. "Not in the hotel room."

"I don't want to be trapped in a hotel room. I want to stay here."

"But I have to be in New York, and I can't do this if you're not there." I pulled her into my hips, nibbling at her ear, and she wiggled away.

"You won't do that if I'm in New York. You didn't do it last night when we were in the same bed, why would New York change that?"

"You were asleep when I came up!"

"You came up at three in the morning, stinking drunk. You were not at your most attractive, darling."

"I had a couple of beers. Big deal."

"Way more than a couple, baby. Not that I expected anything less, since you fucked up our anniversary."

"I said I was sorry!"

She shook her head, turning away. "Whatever. It's probably best that you leave." She picked up the keys to the Porsche and tossed them at me. "Enjoy the ride."

Grabbing her other set of keys, she started out of the room, and I ran after her, grabbing her arm. "Where are you going?"

She yanked her arm out of my grasp. "Out. Don't be here when I get back."

"Rachel!" I yelled, as she turned away again. "I made one stupid fucking mistake. I'm sorry!"

"No, you're not," she said. "You keep saying that, but you're not. You haven't done one thing since you got here that made me believe that you didn't bring Vinnie on purpose so that you didn't have to be alone with me."

"You're crazy."

"Think about it on the drive to New York."

I let her leave this time. She was fucking crazy. Of course I wanted to be alone with her! I just thought it would be cool for Vinnie to see this place, and maybe he and Rachel could start to be friends. Wasn't that a good anniversary gift? I wanted her to be more a part of my life, and know my friends.

Maybe it wasn't exactly what she wanted, but I couldn't always be the perfect boyfriend. I was having trouble living up to her standards lately. Everything I did was wrong. Every time I saw her, we ended up fighting. I was sick of it. Let her go off and pout, and I'd go to New York. I'd call her tonight, after we'd both calmed down.

I slid open the screen door and leaned out to yell at Vinnie. "Pack. We're leaving."

I didn't even wait to see if he was coming, I just went upstairs. He found me in Rachel's room a minute later, as I was throwing stuff in my bag. I hadn't been here long enough to unpack much. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Packing. Get your stuff, we're leaving."

"Dude. You can't leave. She'll kill you!"

I didn't even look at him. "It was her idea. She gets really mean when you don't do what she wants, so you'd better start packing."

"Look, I know this was a stupid time for me to come here. I'll leave. You stay and work this out."

I zipped my bag shut and looked at him. "You don't understand anything about Rachel, Vin. Don't even try. Besides, I have to go. That's what started this fight. I have to go back to New York and talk to my stupid record company and maybe go into the studio tomorrow. I wanted her to come with us, but she didn't want to, so… we're going."

"Maybe she'll be back. She wants to go to New York with you, she just needs to cool off."

I clenched my jaw, trying not to yell at him. "She does not want to come to New York. Pack. I want to be out of here in ten minutes."

He started to say something, and then stopped himself. "Whatever. Fine, we're going to New York."

Where the fuck was I?

Pulling into a parking space, I looked out at the unfamiliar beach. I'd been driving for… I looked at the clock on the dashboard.

What time had I left the house?

Okay, so I'd been driving for a while. Long enough that I wasn't entirely sure where I was. Long Island wasn't that big, so I'd figure out how to get home, I wasn't worried about that.

I was more worried about how angry I'd been, and how I hadn't really been paying attention to the roads.

Leaning my head against the steering wheel, I took a deep breath. I wasn't angry any longer. That had stopped when I was still in town. My thoughts had got tangled around why I was so angry at Nick, and trying to figure out if my standards were just way too high or if he was just a total fuck-up.

Was I being unreasonable to expect him to remember our anniversary? I knew guys weren't good with things like that. But the Porsche had been a gift for the anniversary of when we first met. Shouldn't he have been able to remember when we got together?

I didn't want to be angry again. I was tired. I'd barely slept last night, annoyed at Nick and worried about going into the studio next week and…

A year ago, we were starting our first headlining tour and I was falling in love. Now I was scared to death about making a successful album and losing Nick. It sucked when you got everything you wanted. Then you had to keep it. It was easier to just want it. Then you could blame other people if you didn't get it. Now I couldn't blame anyone else if I lost Nick and made a crappy album.

Well, I could blame Nick and my band. But I knew that would be just part of it. It was really all up to me.

Sighing, I sat up. I needed… I needed to get out of this car. I glanced down at myself, checking to see what I was wearing. I hadn't even showered today, just rolled out of bed and pulled on shorts and a t-shirt. Sandals. I was presentable enough to walk on this unfamiliar beach. Fresh air would do me good.

I leaned over and opened the glove compartment. Mom had always told me hide a twenty there in case I ran out of gas or something. There was a hot dog stand down the beach, and I hadn't eaten all day.

I found the twenty and considered the gas gage. I didn't even have my wallet. Did I have any gas left? Good thing I hadn't gotten pulled over, because I didn't have my license with me.

One hot dog, a soda, a walk on the beach. Then I'd get some gas and go home, obeying all speed limits. Maybe by the time I got home, I'd be sane again.

We walked out of the meeting with Jive and Ken handed me my phone as we got on the elevator. He didn't let me have it during the meeting, because he knew it would just distract me. I could be a professional and leave it off, but I wanted to know if Rachel would call and apologize.

"Call your girl and say you're sorry."

I rolled my eyes at him. "She was the one being crazy this morning. She owes me an apology."

"That's why you were such a jerk in there, then?"

"I am sick of them telling me what to do! They…"

He held up a hand, silencing me. "I've heard it all before, Nick. Look, go back to the hotel, cool off, and I'll be there in an hour to pick you up for dinner. We need to sit down and figure out what your next step is. Then we'll pick up your friends, go out, have a few drinks and talk to some nice ladies. That'll make you feel better."

I turned on my phone, waiting for my voicemail screen to come up. "Whatever. See you at six?"

"Take a shower. Relax. Want me to send you a massage or something?"

I considered him as we got off the elevator. I knew what that meant. The masseuse would definitely be pretty. And willing.

No. I wasn't that mad at Rachel. Was I?

It would be so easy to just have a pretty girl come to my room and do whatever I wanted. She wouldn't tell me not to see my friends or what a jerk I was for forgetting our anniversary.

My phone beeped and I scowled down at it. No, I had to listen to my voicemail and call my girlfriend and apologize. Again. Because… well, because that's what you had to do when you were in a relationship.

Why was I in a relationship again?

"No," I said to Ken. "I'll be fine. See you at the hotel at six."

"If you need anything, you know who to call. See you soon."

My limo was outside, and Ken held open the door for me. I slid inside, hitting the button to call in for voicemail. Aaron. Whatever. The last thing I wanted to deal with was family drama.

Vinnie, because he was at the hotel and bored. I did not want to deal with him, either. I needed three minutes to myself.

AJ. Was this the day for people to call and complain about how I was letting them down? They were trying to plan a golf weekend for his bachelor party in the fall and needed to know my schedule. The fall? When the hell was he getting married again? And golf? AJ was much more interesting when he was drinking.

Not that I wanted him to still be drinking. But he had become an old man since rehab, always talking about his feelings. Golfing was his only vice. I hated golfing.

Rachel. I almost deleted it, because I didn't want to hear her tell me what a jerk I was again. I was a lousy boyfriend and a lousy brother and a lousy friend and a lousy band mate and evidently I needed my band because I couldn't sing and I'd never make it as a solo artist.

But I listened to it. I was a glutton for punishment.

"Hey, bunny," she said. "Sorry for this morning. Really. I overreacted. Sorta. I mean, it is our anniversary weekend, and I had big plans, but I should be flexible. Vinnie's not my favorite guy. I don't hate him like I used to, but he's… he's just not my kind of guy, Nick. But he's your friend, and that's cool, and he was okay yesterday. I just wanted to be alone with you this weekend, and I tried to be good about Vinnie, but then you had to leave and I just… snapped. I'm sorry, baby."

She sighed, and I sighed with her, feeling some of the anger leave me. Even when I was mad at her, Rachel's voice could make me feel better.

"I miss you, bunny. I really do. I miss you, and I'm scared to death about this new album, and I'm stressing myself out and taking it out on you, and I'm sorry. You fucked up this weekend, but I didn't need to freak out on you. I was so annoyed I just left, and I ended up at the other end of the island and almost ran out of gas getting back because I just had the secret twenty and after I bought lunch, that wasn't a lot of gas."

What the hell was the 'secret twenty'?

"But I made it home, and got my wallet and my cell phone and now I'm getting gas. I just wanted to call and tell you that I love you and I'm sorry and I miss you. I think I need to turn off my phone and my mind and just veg out in front of the TV and decompress for the night. I hope your meeting with Jive went okay. They're idiots to make you re-record anything, because the album is perfect just the way it is. There's like five singles on there. More. Okay. I've got to pump some gas now, baby. Love you."

All right, there was a reason I was in a relationship. I loved this woman.

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